The Home Affairs Committee has agreed to the following
Special Report:

REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO
THE MISUSE OF DRUGS ACT 1971 - DRUGS AND THE LAW

In March 2000 the Police Foundation published the
Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act
1971 chaired by Dame Ruth Runciman and entitled Drugs and the
Law. Since the report raised issues of controversy we took
oral evidence from Dame Ruth and some of her colleagues on 8 June
2000 (published as HC 561-i). We also invited the Home Office
to produce a full response to the report in the same way that
they would reply to a select committee report. A reply was sought
by the beginning of November 2000 - some seven months after the
report was published. We have now received a memorandum in response
to the report and this is published as the Appendix to this Special
Report.